Amiot Catherine E, Quervel-Chaumette Mylène, Gagné Christophe, Bastian Brock
Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, PQ, H3C 3P8, Canada.
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 06, 05, Redmond Barry Building, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):23202. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-00872-z.
Pet ownership per se has not been reliably associated with increased human well-being and health. Furthermore, the specific psychological mechanisms and behavioral dynamics through which the presence of pets could yield higher human wellness remain under-investigated. Conducted among dog owners and their dogs, the current experiment investigates if a specific psychological factor - i.e., mindfulness - activated in the presence of one's dog increases dog owners' psychological well-being. The study also explores which affiliative and synchronization behaviors manifested within the human-dog dyad are associated with higher human well-being. A within-participants design was employed among 52 dog owners and their dogs. The mindfulness condition was found to have a positive impact on dog owners' well-being. This condition also generated more affiliative and synchronization behaviors among both owners and their dogs on a majority of behaviors, with some of these behaviors (i.e., frequency the dog initiated contact with their owner; duration the owner communicated with their dog) mediating the associations between the mindfulness induction and the well-being outcomes. These findings confirm the importance of investigating the psychological and behavioral factors which, when activated and manifested within human-dog relationships, promote human wellness as well as interspecies interactivity.
养宠物本身与人类幸福感和健康状况的提升之间并没有可靠的关联。此外，宠物的存在能够提升人类健康的具体心理机制和行为动态仍未得到充分研究。本次实验以狗主人及其宠物狗为对象，探究在狗的陪伴下激活的一种特定心理因素——即正念——是否会提升狗主人的心理健康。该研究还探讨了人犬二元组中表现出的哪些亲和与同步行为与更高的人类幸福感相关。对52位狗主人及其宠物狗采用了被试内设计。结果发现，正念状态对狗主人的幸福感有积极影响。在大多数行为上，这种状态还在主人及其宠物狗之间产生了更多的亲和与同步行为，其中一些行为（即狗主动与主人接触的频率；主人与狗交流的时长）在正念诱导与幸福感结果之间起到了中介作用。这些发现证实了研究心理和行为因素的重要性，这些因素在人犬关系中被激活并表现出来时，能够促进人类健康以及种间互动。
